The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

GREEK LANDS AND THE BASIS OF CHRONOLOGY 105
elements of culture, which can best be matched in the Danube basin. These, according
to the traditions preserved in the Iliad, were the immediate ancestors of the heroes
of the Trojan War. Recently Dr. Wace,^ who has made a careful study of the
pre-Hellenic remains of the mainland of Greece, especially of the pottery, has pointed
out that there is but one break in the ceramic evolution of that region, the introduction
of geometric ware. This is, he believes, best explained by equating it with the Dorian
invasion, which took place some generations after the siege of Troy. Dr. Wace has
certainly made out a strong case, and we must accept his view that no invasion, in the
strict sense of the term, preceded that of the Dorians ; but while he would have us
scrap the " Achsean " hypothesis in its entirety, we must, I think, consider awhile
before dismissing aU the evidence that Sir William Ridgeway has accumulated.
Much of Ridgeway' s archaeological evidence is Hallstatt in type and, apparently
at least, Hallstatt in date, and may well equate better with the Dorian than the
" Achsean " movement, but the legends are not to be hghtly swept aside, and we have
the swords, which are admittedly pre-geometric, and so pre-Dorian, and may well
antedate also the Trojan War. There is also the introduction into southern Greece of a
type of palace, which seems to have developed in a more northerly clime.* We have,
therefore, evidence for some intrusive elements entering Greek lands from the Danube
basin, bringing with them swords of Central European type, a new type of domestic
architecture, and, we may well beheve, certain deities and beliefs of more northern
origin,' yet the continuity of the ceramic culture shows that there had been no general
displacement of the population.
Before attempting to decide between these conflicting views, it may be wise to
consider the term " Achsean." By this I mean only those people, who are the subject
of Sir William Ridgeway's hypothesis, and who organised the attack upon Priam's
Troy. They may, for all we know, be a people or merely a class, and their connection
with the Achseans of the Peloponnese, discussed by Herodotus,* may be very remote.
It seems clear, in fact, that the term as used by Herodotus connoted something very
different from what the term meant to Homer, and what it signifies in the pages of
Ridgeway.
3 Wace (1916) 29, 30; (1920) 398. 5 Harrison (1908) 3i2n, 318, 319 ; Hall (1913) 520 fn.
4 Hall (1913) 63 ; Mackenzie {1908-8). « Herodotus viii. 73.